On the evening of Oct. 25, it was announced that prolific, Emmy-winning voice actor Eric Bauza suddenly passed away at age 46 from hypertensive heart disease. A notice was posted to his Instagram reading:
From the Family of Eric Bauza:
Eric Bauza, Emmy Award-winning voice actor and the modern voice of iconic Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, along with dozens of other beloved cartoon characters, has passed away suddenly. More details to come.
Aside from Bugs and Daffy, Bauza voiced a variety of other Looney Tunes characters in films like The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and Coyote vs. ACME. For the latter, Bauza was a major advocate for the film’s release during the years it had been shelved by Warner Bros. At the 2024 Annie Awards, while Bauza was presenting, he went off script as Bugs and Daffy, demanding the release of the movie. Many consider the moment to be instrumental in its eventual release.
Back in January, Bauza spoke with Polygon about this moment, saying:
“There was that moment at the Annie Awards where I was playing Bugs and Daffy and I shouted ‘Release Coyote vs. ACME! That was a joke that I had pitched and they were like, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ So, it was taken out of the prompter, but I did it anyway. I was waiting for that big hook to come out and yoink me off stage. I made a joke, once I got through the whole bit, I said, ‘Now that that’s over — and by that I mean my career,’ And it got a big, big laugh. I got a lot of respect from pretty much anyone who was anyone in the animation industry.”
The move was one of many that earned him respect in the animation industry. Bauza had begun his career as an animator in the early 2000s and soon transitioned into doing voices as well. Over the past quarter-century, he’s racked up hundreds of credits voicing both original and legacy characters. To name just a few, he played Toad General in the two recent Super Mario films, Lego Luke Skywalker, Transformers characters Hot Rod and Prowl, fan-favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain Tiger Claw, the Sentinels on X-Men ’97, Baby Fozzie in the recent Muppet Babies reboot, and Woody Woodpecker.
Over the past few years, I’ve had the honor of interviewing Bauza a number of times, and he was always friendly and a blast to talk to. Aside from his obvious talent, he loved to speak in-depth about animation history, particularly of the Looney Tunes characters he was inhabiting, and how important their originator, voice legend Mel Blanc, was to him. Being so young, one would have thought Bauza would voice the Looney Tunes characters for decades to come. Even more devastating is the fact that Bauza was a husband and the father of a young son. The Polygon staff extends its condolences to them and the rest of Bauza’s loved ones.